the data and material from the conservation point of view that need to be assessed.
3. CIPA AMONG THE CULTURAL HERITAGE INITIATIVES OF SYRIA
Some members of the CIPA executive board, who personally have worked in various projects in Syria, have interesting data
regarding the recorded and documented tangible heritage of the region, especially from the Aleppo and Palmyra areas. This data
is serving as a basis for our initiative that was decided in the CIPA executive board meeting in Riva del Garda, Italy, in 2014.
However, as mentioned, CIPA is a joint organisation of ICOMOS and ISPRS and the available data mainly concerns
location information, sites and monuments, and the information of the data concerning movable artefacts associated with the
sites under CIPAs scope is limited. That data belongs to the field of expertise of ICCROM International Centre for the
Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, www.iccrom.org and ICOM the International Council of
Museums, www.icom.museum and may only be referred to or supplied when available and applicable. On the other hand, our
data is important to any study of artefacts and their provenances. This is to be taken into account in the case of the
increased trafficking of looted antiquities out from Syria during the conflict.
The database design with the graphic interface of the CIPA project has been presented in The 10
th
International Conference on Archaeology of the Ancient Near East ICAANE, for the
first time, in a specific CIPA Workshop on Saving the Cultural Heritage of Syria that is taking place in Vienna in April 2016
www.orea.oaw.ac.at.10icaane.html, Rinaudo and Silver, 2016 in order to get some feedback of its structure and developing it
further. After the meeting and fixing the goal with the executive board of CIPA the project will aim designing the database from
the initial phase further. A survey of the existing datasets and databases concerning the Syrian heritage built up by other
organizations is acknowledged in the construction of the CIPA inventory. Already accessible data will not need to be
duplicated. A link is provided to other datasets and databases offering existing material or information when such knowledge
is available. The storages, archives, museums, datasets and databases of
DGAM Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria are central in saving the cultural heritage of Syria. Apart
from the initiatives of UNESCO the United Nation, Organization for Education, Science and Culture: UNESCO
Observatory of Syrian Cultural Heritage and the project Safeguarding Syrian Heritage at www.unesco.org, ICOMOS
and ICORP International Committee on Risk Preparedness, www.icorp.icomos.org organizations under UNESCO are
specialized in safeguarding the cultural sites, the latter especially in the case of catastrophes. ICCROM and ICOM
under UNESCO are active in conservation, restoration as well as storing artefacts. UNITAR www.unitar.org under UN with
its UNOSAT programme has collected satellite data of the damage at heritage sites in Syria. The International Committee
of the Blue Shield ICBS, www.ancbs.org has taken special actions in protecting and preserving the heritage in conflict
areas like Syria. ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives American Schools of
Oriental Research, www.asor-syrianheritage.org are also active in the field. CyArk is documenting digitally at-risk heritage
sites in Syria in co-operation with ICOMOS www.cyark.org. The World Monuments Fund is also supporting the site
preservation in Syria https:www.wmf.orgprojectcultural- heritage-sites-syria. SHIRIN International Syrian Heritage in
Danger: an International Research Initiative and Network at www.shirin-international.org and EAMENA Endangered
Archaeology in the Near East and North Africa at Oxford University, www.eamena.arch.ox.ac.uk are organisations
working to save the Syrian heritage based in Europe. In co-operation with UNESCO 3D cameras have been provided
by British funds and coordinated by the Institute for Digital Archaeology www.digitalarchaeology.org.uk for locals in
Syria to document endangered sites. People on the ground in Syria have been involved in sharing information by images and
videos during the armed conflict. Antiquities Coalition https:antiquitiescoalition.org has especially been fighting
against trafficking of the looted artefacts. Manar al-Athar is a free online multi-media source with a
photoarchive
at Oxford
University www.manar-al-
athar.ox.ac.uk that includes data from Syria. SYRHER Syrian Heritage Archive Project, Germany, www.syrian-heritage.org
and the Aleppo Project at Center for Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery at Central European University, Hungary, are also
contributing in the preservation work. Some databases use ARCHES platform developed by the Getty Conservation
Institute www.getty.edu. In addition, APSA the Association for the Protection of Syrian
Archaeology, www.apsa2011.com and the Heritage for Peace organization www.heritageforpeace.org should be mentioned
as actively participating in sharing information of the situation with the cultural heritage in Syria
4. THE CIPA PROJECT 4.1 The Aims and Strategy